LessWrong (Curated & Popular) “That Mad Olympiad” by Tomás B.
Oct 19, 2025
Dive into a world where precocious child authors like Chen and Adrian navigate the intriguing landscape of distilled literature and today's Lit Olympiad. Explore the tension between AI creativity and organic writing, as the competition unfolds under strict rules. The allure of celebrity writers like Melissa Lee surfaces, while questions about AI love and dating culture emerge. From bittersweet bowling dates to evolving friendships, this tale weaves a rich tapestry of modern relationships amid the lingering impact of a pre-AI society.
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Child Prodigy Trained By Distillation
- The narrator describes Chen as a four-year-old who “started distilling the day after he was born” and writes many novels without genuine experience.
- This highlights a world where children can be trained into literary competence through distillation rather than lived craft.
Remembering Human Authors As Resistance
- The narrator insists on preserving human authors like Wallace and Shelley as cultural memory against distilled replacement.
- She frames remembering organic writers as purposeful resistance to a culture dominated by distilled output.
Lit Olympiad: AI-Judged Competitive Writing
- The lit Olympiad forces kids to write 10k words in 120 minutes judged by a corporate AI, producing eerie, blank-eyed competitors.
- The narrator feels despair watching talented children reduced to model-like outputs judged by an AI sponsor.
